


Rise

by dodongodislike



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 08:41:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6604264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dodongodislike/pseuds/dodongodislike
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All dreams must end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rise

**Title:** Rise **  
Author:** Dodongo Dislike  
 **Summary:** All dreams must end.  
 **Based on:** LA with OOT and others mixed in. ****  


* * *

Night on Koholint was quiet and peaceful, even in this time of monsters and Nightmares. Then again, neither monsters nor Nightmares had posed much of a threat recently. The presence of a hero on the island had discouraged the monsters and lead to the banishment of all but the last of the Nightmares.

As for the hero himself, Link lay in bed and stared at the cottage ceiling, a stranger in a strange land, feeling anything but heroic.

Beside him, Marin slept the gentle slumber of the innocent. Despite what had just happened between them, Link saw no contradiction in thinking of her as innocent. There was a purity to her soul that could never be despoiled. He supposed that was what had attracted him to her in the first place. That, and her simple joy in life. It had been a long time since he had met anyone so carefree, so unburdened by pain or loss that she seemed almost weightless.

Link's own soul did not bear close scrutiny. Too much had happened since he had first left the Kokiri Forest for it to remain even remotely pure. There were too many deaths, too much blood on his hands for that. Too many hard choices had been made; too many remained to be made. One, in fact, needed to be made soon. Tonight. The time for dithering around indecisively had ended; he had all of the Sirens' Instruments. He needed to decide whether or not he was going to use them. Use them, end the nightmares, wake the Wind Fish, be free of the island, and return to Hyrule.

Make Koholint vanish.

He was pretty sure he knew what he wanted. He just didn't know what was _right._

What manner of hero destroyed the very world he sought to save? Where was the courage in fighting to free himself when the price was the lives of innocents?

_What the hell am I doing here?_

Link had been wondering that since the day he'd woken up in this very bed, disoriented and convinced that he had heard—

He shut down that train of thought, not wanting to invite more guilt to go along with his little self-pity party. It was already a bit too much for his taste. All of this soul searching and guilt seeking wasn't really his style. Storming into a dungeon with sword swinging, now that was more his style. He preferred to leave the deep thinking to—other parties.

Well, he'd caught that thought in time, but it was already too late to try to keep her out of his head for the rest of the night. And he couldn't very well lie here with Marin and think about _her._

Carefully, slowly, he slid out of the bed and began to pull on his clothes. He was grabbing his shirt off the floor when Marin stirred, muttered something inaudible, then lapsed back into sleep. Exhaling with relief, Link finished dressing, grabbed his sword, and slipped out of the house into close stillness of the island night.

Pausing at the end of the path that lead into Mabe village, he breathed in the salty air and looked up at the sky. So much about his adventure on Koholint had been familiar. The prevalence of wacky locals, the species of monsters, these things were nothing new to him. But the sky—the stars in the sky over the island were radically different from the stars he had watched night after night his whole life.

All throughout his travels, it had comforted him to know that no matter where he was on this grand earth, he was still under the same sky as his friends. That they looked up to see the same stars as he. It was a terribly isolating to know that he was so far from them that the stars themselves were different. There was much that troubled him about his time on Koholint, but nothing had troubled him more than the sight of this foreign sky.

Maybe that was the sign he had been hoping for from the Goddesses, he mused with a grin as he began to walk down the path. Maybe he was supposed to interpret the strange constellations as a message.

_You don't belong here. Go home, you idiot._

Link couldn't help but chuckle, first at the imagined divine scolding, then at his own tendency for inappropriate levity. But then, if he hadn't been born with a sense of humor, he would have gone crazy long ago. Probably right after he had carried Ruto out of JabuJabu's belly.

Still grinning, he strolled out of the village, heading south for the Toronbo shores. Though he had no particular destination in mind, he found himself drawn farther south and west, until he approached the cliff that jutted out into the ocean at the very furthest corner of the island. There was no sign of the octoroks that plagued the cliffs since his arrival, no sign of life of any kind. It was as if the rest of the world had fallen away into the night, leaving only the sand beneath his boots and the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks below.

Link wondered at the peace of it all, before wonder turned to bemusement as he climbed the final rise saw her standing on the edge of the cliff, slender and white in the moonlight, a beacon of reality on the shores of the dreaming island.

_Oh, of course._

It was impossible, but it made perfect sense. He needed guidance; who better to provide it than the person who had long been his guiding star?

For a long moment, he just stood in place and tried to sort through his emotions. Nothing had ever been simple with her, especially not how he felt. Marin, in contrast, had been remarkably easy to deal with—her adoration was simple and undemanding. His affection for her was similarly straightforward. And though he knew it would never suffice in the long run, it was a pleasant escape.

But Marin and simplicity were back at the village. Here was complexity, a dizzying brew of respect and kinship, adoration and fear, love and even hate. All of these things he had felt for her ever since he had first laid eyes on her a lifetime ago. In all the years and battles since, the only thing he had never felt for her was indifference.

And throughout it all, interwoven through their story like Farore's strings of fate, had been the longing. Its ache had subsided during his time on Koholint, but now that she stood before him, his beautiful princess, it came flooding back. It hollowed out his bones and carved away at his insides as he stared at her and knew that wherever in Hyrule her body was tonight, it rested in her husband's arms.

He had left Hyrule for reasons besides her marriage, but it, and the terrible fight it had caused between them, had played a significant role. Better to leave the hurt behind, he had thought, until he could deal with it—even if dealing with it meant never seeing her again. But they were bound together along dimensions vastly more powerful than distance. Even now, standing in a realm of dreams with their physical manifestations however many hundreds of miles apart, he could feel the gentle pulse of her heart beating just beneath his own.

He had been a fool to think he could escape his longing for her.

Either she had sensed the tenor of his thoughts or she had simply grown bored of staring at the ocean, for she turned to look at him. Perched on her forearm was the Owl, Link's sometime-guide, sometime-nuisance. Its golden eyes opened to stare at him briefly, before slowly closing as she ran her fingers through its crowning feathers in an absent-minded caress.

He met her gaze, blue eyes to blue. There was no innocence here, not in a soul as worn as his own. Not in the soul of a woman who had foreseen her family's death and kingdom's fall long before her tenth birthday. Her innocence, like his, had been stolen in the name of destiny. But in its place was a deep and abiding wisdom, steely determination, and above all else, a wellspring of strength.

As he stared at her, the familiar quirk of her brow and flash of humor in her eyes as if to say, _"This again?"_ inspired a sudden realization.

Her body might lie with her husband, but her spirit sought _him._

He almost laughed out loud. Quelling the urge, he closed the distance between them and asked, "Is this your dream or mine?"

"When two people dream the same thing…"

"They will meet." The words, like the smile that followed them, came effortlessly to his lips. "Hello, Princess."

She returned the smile, and as she did, he could feel all of the angry words that had passed between them before his departure rise up on the ocean wind and vanish into the night. "Hello, Link."

He nodded towards the Owl and asked, "Has he been annoying you with his riddles, or have the two of you been having fun exchanging bits of cryptic wisdom?"

"Neither, actually. He's been telling me about all you've done here."

"Oh he has, has he? And what exactly does he think I've done here?"

"Nothing you haven't done a dozen times before: saving a world from great evil…though the part about the Wind Fish is new. What exactly is a Wind Fish?"

"I have no idea, but I do know that it's neither the wind nor a fish."

"He also tells me that while he's impressed with your progress to this point, he's puzzled by what he perceives is a sudden reluctance to engage in the final battle."

"He'll just have to live with his puzzlement for the time being."

"Is it that hard?"

"No, but it's…" he grasped for the right word, "complicated."

"When is it not?" She was smiling wryly, but her eyes were sober as they met his. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Yes." When she motioned for him to continue, he shook his head. "Later. First, tell me what's happening in Hyrule. What are the Gossip Stones saying these days?"

"Let's see." She lowered her face to the top of the Owl's head, thinking. "They say that Malon of Lon Lon Ranch has a secret admirer who is sending her florid love letters."

Link laughed, imaging how shocked and delighted his friend would be by such a thing. "Are the letters any good?"

"I have no idea. But they also say she has a whole cohort of young men falling all over themselves trying to impress her." She looked back up at him, eyes glittering with sly humor. "Especially now that the Hero of Time isn't around to threaten anyone who gets too close."

Too amused by the thought of Malon trying to negotiate a field of lovesick boys to take offense, Link replied, "Just guarding the pony girl's honor. She'll thank me one day. What else?"

"They say the business scrubs are thinking of unionizing."

"Good for them."

"Yes, good for them, but it raises the specter of price fixing. It's one more thing for me to keep an eye on."

"The problems for the crown never end, do they? What else?"

Her gaze turned reproachful. "They say Hyrule's Princess has been unreasonably worried about Hyrule's Hero and is going to strangle him for it the first chance she gets."

"Keep your distance, Princess."

"Don't worry; I don't think I can kill you here." She frowned. "Unfortunately."

The nature of the dreamscape was beyond his ken and concern. What he— _Wait._ Something about that last bit of gossip had been odd.

"'Hyrule's Princess'?" he repeated. "Shouldn't it be 'Queen' if you're—"

"He's dead," she cut him off quickly, almost brutally. "He was out riding, the horse spooked, and…well. That was that." Drawing the Owl close to her chest as if for comfort— _or protection,_ Link thought—she continued, "It's an antiquated law that I haven't gotten around to changing. A woman can't be a queen in Hyrule without a king."

Still trying to process the news, Link said the only thing that came to mind. "I'm sorry." For what, he wasn't sure.

"Don't be." Her tone betrayed no emotion, which meant she was upset. Link tried to search her face for clues as to how she truly felt, but her royal mask was firmly in place. Keeping her eyes trained on the Owl, she added, "It will all pass in time."

"I am sorry, though, Princess." And now he knew why. Because this news made his actions earlier tonight feel like the worst kind of betrayal. It was absurd, of course, because if anyone had been unwittingly betrayed, it had been poor, sweet little Marin. Since he was about to destroy her world. Since, after tonight, she might believe he loved her.

"But you do." Her voice startled him out of his thoughts. She was still stroking the Owl's head, staring out into the black emptiness of the ocean. "Love the girl, I mean."

Link glared at the bird. "Someone's a blabber-mouth."

Zelda's lips curved into a soft smile at the phrase, perhaps remembering two stupid little kids who had plotted to save the world. "He tells me what I need to know. It's true, though. You love the girl, just like you've loved so many others. You can't help yourself; you love everyone."

"'Everyone' is a bit of an exaggeration. Remember the guy in Termina who kept stealing my stuff and trying to sell it back to me?"

"Perhaps not those who've betrayed themselves and those around them. But as for the rest…" She met his gaze directly to emphasize the truth of her words. "It's why you've given up so much for them, and it's why you'll always fight for whoever you meet. You're the only person I know who's capable caring so deeply for people he barely knows. That's why you're a hero."

It was his turn to look away, embarrassed. "And here I thought it was because I could wave a sword around without poking myself in the eye."

"That helps." Despite the humor in her tone, she was still staring at him with that steady, honest gaze when he looked back. The damn Owl was, too. The similarity was unnerving. "Are you ready to talk about it now?"

_Yes. No. Maybe._ After her last bit of news, the last thing Link wanted to talk about was his ambivalence for the task that was supposed to help him return home. And he was fairly certain he didn't have the stomach to tell her how much of his ambivalence was inspired by another woman. But he needed her wisdom. He needed her strength and her clarity of purpose. He needed _her_ , and he wasn't sure how much longer the dreaming island would let him have her. "No time like the present, I suppose." He gestured towards the Owl. "But without any prying ears."

She nodded, understanding, and with the fluidity of an experienced falconer, cast the bird into the night. As he watched it wing away, Link reflected, "I suppose it'll be annoyed with me for that."

"It's all right. He needs to hunt, anyway."

"Huh." The Owl's silhouette vanished into the black sky. "I never thought of him doing anything other than babbling at poor shipwrecked bastards like me."

"Wisdom does not preclude hunger." There was the richness in her voice and the gleam in her eye as she spoke that always made him feel flushed. "But that's not the subject at hand." Gathering her skirts, she lowered herself to the rocky ground and gestured for him to join her. "Tell me."

He sat down beside her and made quick work of the tale, explaining in short, sparse sentences what he had learned about Koholint, the Wind Fish, and the way home. And the price.

For her part, the princess listened quietly, calmly, hands clasped in her lap and her gaze unwavering. When he came to the end, she remained silent for several minutes, thinking. "You're worried that in saving these people, you may be damning them," she said at last.

"And it's even worse if you think that this is the only way for me to leave. I can either save the island from the Nightmares and destroy it, or I can stay here and let the Nightmares run amok. What kind of choice is that?"

"A hard one. But most important choices are."

Link shook his head. "Maybe for those of you who run kingdoms. But my choices usually boil down to whether or not to beat the bad guy who's hurting my friends. I'm not a sage or a king, Princess. I'm just a guy with a sword." He lowered his head as his words unintentionally recalled the crux of their fight. _"Do you want to be King, Link?" No. Never. I'm not_ — "I'm not you."

"Shall we set aside our self pity for a moment and examine the central question?" The tartness of the question indicated that she, also, remembered.

"Someone needs to."

"Very well then: Is it wrong to return to reality when it means the dream and all therein will cease to exist?"

"So you believe that Koholint is truly a dream?"

"I would have to do some research in the castle library about dream realms, but I'm inclined to believe so." She paused, then continued with a small grin, "Who other than you would dream up a place so delightfully weird?"

"Says the woman who can transform into a man."

"I never knew you found that delightful."

He laughed. "It's certainly weird."

She returned the laughter, softly. "Regardless, I think it's safe to assume that you're correct in assuming that this is either your dream or that you've intruded on the dream of the Wind Fish. And if that is true, then waking means simply returning to reality, not destroying anyone or anything real." Picking up a stone, she began idly drawing patterns in the sand as she mused aloud, "It's even possible that by freeing the Wind Fish from the Nightmares, you'll be freeing it to return to sleep and dream of a more peaceful world."

"I suppose," Link said, believing the logic of her statement but wondering why it didn't _feel_ true. He closed his eyes, inhaled the salty sea air, and felt the breeze off the ocean blow through his hair. Elsewhere on Koholint, the residents of Mabe and Animal Villages and all of the little cottages between slept quietly through this night. Nightmares or no Nightmares, he couldn't think of a place any more peaceful.

"The there's only one question that remains unanswered."

Keeping his eyes closed, he asked, "And what's that, Princess?"

"Do you want to leave?"

Did he—oh. _Oh_. His eyes opened wide. "You mean instead of staying here in whatever kind of dream this is?"

She shrugged, still tapping the stone on the sand, still staring at the ground. "You have a right to happiness. If this truly is your dream, then the question ultimately isn't whether or not you should end it, but whether or not you want to."

He stared at her for a long, silent moment, wishing she would look at him. As well as he knew her, he still couldn't always read her; she had spent too many years guarding her emotions. Why would she ask this, if she wanted him to return? Did she not? Or was she once again removing herself from all consideration in another attempt at emotional martyrdom?

They'd fought about _that_ , too.

He said her name aloud, then, for the first time in the year since he had left. It had the desired effect; it startled her into lifting her head and meeting his eyes. "Link, I owe you—"

"We owe each other, Princess."

She held his gaze, unblinking. "You shouldn't return to Hyrule because you feel compelled by destiny to do so. You should return because you _want_ to."

So that was it. "I want—" What _did_ he want?

_"Do you want to be King?"_

When he had left Hyrule, it had been in an angry haze of frustrated, but maddeningly nebulous, desire. He had wanted her, but not on the terms the world had seen fit to give. He had wanted to make use of the gifts fate had given him, but not at the terms that same fate dictated. He had been restless and discontent and so very tired of destiny. During his travels abroad, he had had the opportunity to do new and great things, satiating his need for freedom and adventure enough that he had ultimately decided to return home. But even as he had set sail, he had been wary of returning to the arms of fate and worried what kind of welcome it would provide. Even then, the desire to escape its embrace had laid coiled in the back of his mind. Part of the joy of this island had been its lack of expectations. He gave because he wanted to give, not because divine powers demanded it of him.

Then wasn't Koholint his answer? Wasn't Marin his answer?

Zelda's brilliant blue eyes bore into his, as demanding as destiny, and he looked away to escape their power. "What do you want, Link?"

She was offering him an out. She was offering him the opportunity to never return to their home. To stay here on Koholint, control the monster population spawned by the final Nightmare, and live out his days in blissful simplicity.

...and possibly be bored out of his mind within a few months. There was only one way off the island; if he stayed, it would become his whole world. All of his friends in Hyrule and beyond would recede into the past as time's river swept him away from them forever. He closed his eyes again and laid back on the sand, hands crossed behind his head, trying to imagine it.

Most important choices were hard.

But beyond the temptation to escape destiny, beyond the countermanding surety that island life would grow tedious all too soon, stood one unassailable truth: he missed them. All of them. He missed the soft light of the forest shining on Saria's face as it drifted through the forest canopy. The warm, rich sound of Malon's laughter as she kicked him out of the ranch for being a threat to the cuccos. The wicked gleam in Nabooru's eyes right before she pulled some dirty move on him in the Training Ground. The radiant joy on the faces of all of those whom he had helped in the simplest ways—finding a beloved pet, or an odd mushroom, or an eyeball frog.

Would it be worth it? Would it be worth it to try to keep dreaming on the off chance that it might become his own reality? And would he ever truly be happy in a reality absent of his friends and his freedom?

Put that way, the answer was very clear.

"I want to go home."

Skirts rustled as she shifted to sit beside him, and he breathed deeply, inhaling her scent. She was right, as she always was: he loved Marin. He loved them all, all of friends he had made, for what they had given him. What Marin had given him was respite from fate. She loved him simply for who he was in this moment, not for who he had been or who he could become. She would never want him to be any more or less. She would never demand of him more than he thought he could give.

She would never demand that he become great.

Hands framed his face, cool and gentle against his skin. The touch was so familiar, soft and strong all at once. There was no respite from destiny in these hands—quite the opposite, in fact—but there would always be understanding and unwavering support. The paths she had guided him down had been painful, stained with blood, and marred with great losses. But there had been beauty, too, and love of all kinds, and, above all else, a surpassing glory.

There was no one else in the world that could do what he did. And there was no one else who could provide the wisdom to help him to do it. Whatever greatness he possessed, he possessed because she had challenged him to rise to it. "All dreams must end," she murmured.

He whispered her name again, savoring the taste of it on his lips, and in response, he could sense her bend over, so close he could feel the softness of her breath and the caress of her lips against his forehead. "You are a hero, Link. You will always rise."

He opened his eyes.

Zelda was gone, her spirit drawn back across the ocean to its home in Hyrule. In her place was the empty sky, filling with the light of dawn. He spent a moment wondering if it had all been real or a dream or a real dream within the Windfish's dream before deciding that didn't matter. Whether in a dream or a dream of a dream, he had made his decision. The path before him was clear, and as he pushed himself to his feet, he saw the Owl waiting, watching from its perch on the edge of the cliff.

Link met its steady, golden gaze, aware that for the first time that his own was as unwavering.

"Well," he said, "let's go."

The Owl soared aloft on silent wings, spiraling upwards into the rising sun. Alone in the wind, Link allowed himself one last breath of silence before unsheathing his sword and turning to the northeast, to the final Nightmare.

It was time to wake up.


End file.
